The Adoration Quandary
by LissyGray
Summary: Penny realizes she has feelings for Sheldon. Will she show him that she loves him or hide it from Dr. Whackadoodle?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: The Big Bang Theory characters and likenesses are owned by NBC and Chuck Lorre Productions.**

So, I admit that I enjoy writing Shenny stories although I know that they will never get together on the show.

Also, in this AU, Sheldon and Amy never met, but I do love Amy. So, don't get the wrong idea. Lol...

There is a little bit of recapping of the Season 1, Episode 1.

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Penny was sitting at her small dining room table staring out the window, her left hand under her chin and her right holding a pen. She was writing in her journal, but seemed to be lost in thought for a brief moment. She glanced back down and read what she'd just written.

_I think I have feelings for Sheldon Cooper. Am I crazy?! Maybe I need to get tested..._

She bit her bottom lip and reread the words on the page and she thought about how or when this may have happened. She remembered when she first met Sheldon and Leonard.

She had left her apartment door open and was in the process of unpacking when she saw them staring at her. She was a little alarmed at first, but they seemed perfectly harmless and she'd said "Hi". They came closer to her doorway and awkwardly said "Hi" a few times too many. She also recalled Sheldon fiddling with his messenger bag nervously. She could tell that they didn't have much experience talking to women. They had invited her to eat Indian food and she'd accepted because honestly she was starving and they seemed like nice guys. When she had pointed out Sheldon's whiteboard, she saw how proud he was of his work and he had given her a cute little smile when she had said, "You're like one of those beautiful mind, genius guys". Leonard interrupted wanting her attention to his whiteboard and Sheldon seemed to want to disprove him, but she just let them argue while she sat down to eat. She tried flirting with Sheldon by telling him to sit next to her when he complained that she was sitting in his spot. He completely ignored her advances and went on about why it was his spot. She realized then, that Dr. Sheldon Cooper was a whackadoodle.

When she'd met Sheldon she had tried to flirt with him a few times until she realized that he was clueless and perhaps a little on the crazy side. That's when she decided to just be his friend. Now she wondered what had changed her mind.

_Knock, knock, knock_

"Penny,"

_Knock, knock, knock_

"Penny,"

_Knock, knock, knock_

"Penny,"

_Oh God. It's Sheldon. _Penny thought to herself as she slammed her journal shut and ran into her room to put it in her night stand. She came back out and tried to calm her nerves before opening the door for him. She opened the door and put a big smile on her face.

"Hey, Sheldon"

"Hello, Penny," he said as he looked straight into her soul (at least that's how she felt at the moment) with his stunning blue eyes, "are you alright? Your face is a bit flushed."

"What?" she asked as she touched her cheek, which she could feel were warm from blushing, "I'm fine. I was just doing a little exercise."

"Oh, was I interrupting? I can come back later."

"No, I just finished. What's up?"

"Well, tomorrow is Raj's birthday and Leonard suggested, to my dismay, that we have a small gathering to celebrate the occasion."

"Okay and...?" she raised her eyebrows at him.

"I don't know how to plan a party and you were the one who planned Leonard's surprise party."

"So, let me get this straight. Tomorrow is Raj's birthday and you want me to plan a party in one day?"

"Yes," he answered with a slight lost puppy dog look on his face.

She was both pleased and annoyed that those two brainiacs couldn't plan a party without her. She sighed and looked at Sheldon, who stood silently awaiting her answer. She couldn't turn down his request for her help.

"Alright, I'll help you. I'll make a list of things that Leonard and you need to go buy today. I'll call Bernadette and Howard and a few of my girl friends."

He smiled, "Oh good. Just invite a few people. Not as many as last time."

"Don't worry. I won't go overboard." she said as she smiled back at him. She loved when he smiled at her, it was rare and it gave her butterflies.

"May I come in? I'd like you to write the list now, if you could."

She moved aside so he could enter. He came in and sat in her green and white chair. She went into the her bedroom to get a piece of paper and a pen. When she turned around Sheldon was standing right behind her. She nearly screamed in terror.

"Sheldon! What the hell?!" she yelled as she jumped back.

"I'm sorry. Did I startle you?" he asked innocently.

She rolled her eyes at him, "Of course you did. What are you doing?"

"I noticed your bed wasn't made," he said as he gestured towards her bed, "It was bothering me."

"Seriously?!" she said through her teeth.

She wanted to slap him for scaring the crap out of her because her bed wasn't made up, but he just started making the bed. He straightened the sheets, pulled the comforter up to about a foot from from head of the bed and folded it over. Then, to Penny's surprise as she stood there gaping at him, he fluffed her pillows before placing them neatly on the bed. He stood straight again, placed his arms at his side, and smiled.

"That's much better." he said as he once again gestured at the bed.

"Uh, thanks, sweetie." she replied embarrassed that he was even in her bedroom and let alone made the bed, "Now let me write that list for you."


	2. Chapter 2

The guys were lucky that they had a neighbor who could plan a party on a dime. Penny had sent them to a party store, the grocery store, and told them they had to each buy Raj a birthday present. They bought everything she told them to buy, even if it seemed unnecessary to Sheldon, as he didn't know how to plan a party. When they arrived back at their apartment, Penny came over to help them set up. Bernadette and Howard also came over to help. Penny put them to work in the kitchen preparing the punch and the food. She had Leonard go pick up Raj, so he wouldn't have to drive home after the party. She and Sheldon were putting up the decorations.

"Okay, lift the banner a little bit higher." Penny told Sheldon as she had already taped her side of the birthday banner up.

"Here?" Sheldon asked looking impatient.

"Yeah, that's perfect."

They stood back and looked at the banner for a moment, then Penny grabbed a roll of blue streamers and taped one end to a wall and walked to the middle of the living room. She got up on a stool and twisted the streamer a few times before trying to tape it to the center of the room. She couldn't reach the ceiling, she was just an inch off, so she stood on her tiptoes, but then felt herself falling forward. She then felt warm, large hands on her waist and looked down to see Sheldon staring up at her with wide eyes. His face was so close to hers that she could feel his breath on her skin. She placed her free hand on his shoulder to steady herself and she started to blush again. He looked at her with inquiring eyes, but she looked away and proceeded to tape the streamer to the ceiling with Sheldon supporting her body. Once she glanced down again, Sheldon's hands were back at his side.

"Why don't you let me do that? You're not tall enough and I'm not going to hold you up every time you need to stick a streamer to the ceiling." he gave her an irksome look and folded his arms over his chest.

"Okay, thanks. I'll just go check on Howard and Bernadette." Penny retorted quickly and practically ran towards the kitchen.

Bernadette looked up from the dip she was spooning into a bowl and raised her eyebrow at Penny and then looked over at Sheldon for a moment, then back at Penny. Penny knew she'd seen what had happened and she mouthed, "Not here" to her, since she knew Sheldon would hear her. Bernadette nodded and turned towards Howard who had had his back turned during the whole incident while baking something in the oven.

"Honey, Penny and I have to go get something from her apartment. We'll be right back." Bernadette said to him and kissed his cheek.

"No problem. I got this." he replied as he slipped an oven mitt on his hand.

Bernadette practically dragged Penny back to her apartment. Once inside the confines of Penny's apartment, Bernadette turned and placed her hands on her hips and gave Penny a scrutinizing look.

"So, what was that I just saw?"

Penny shifted uncomfortably in front of her best friend and looked down at the floor before answering.

"I...I think I'm in love with Sheldon." she practically whispered.

"What?!" Bernadette hissed, "Penny, are you crazy? It's Sheldon."

"I know! I know! I don't know when this happened, but I'm in love with that whackadoodle." She said as she flopped down on her sofa and looked up at the ceiling.

Bernadette came and sat down next to her. She stared at Penny for a moment as if gathering her thoughts before speaking.

"Well, then what are you going to do about it?"

Penny sat up and looked at Bernadette. Then, she flopped back on the sofa again.

"I don't know. He'd never date me. He's never shown any interest in any woman since I've known him."

"He didn't flinch when you touched him," Bernadette thought back to the streamer incident, "You know Sheldon hates when people touch him. He helped you by touching you and then let you put your hand on his shoulder."

"What do you think that means?" Penny once again sat up straight.

"I think it means he trusts you."

Penny smiled and realized perhaps Bernadette was right.

"Oh, we better get back before the guys think something happened to us." Penny said as she remembered they were still preparing for a party.

"I told Howard we were getting something. Um, do you have a bag of chips or something?"

Penny smiled and went to the kitchen and grabbed an unopened bag of pretzel sticks. When they arrived back at the apartment, Sheldon had finished putting the streamers up. He had actually done a very good job and he was sitting at his computer doing something. Sheldon stared at the bag of pretzels.

"Pretzels? Did we not buy enough snacks?"

"Uh, we just figured the dip would go well with pretzels and you guys didn't buy any." Bernadette replied and took the pretzels from Penny before heading to the kitchen to finish helping Howard. Leaving Penny and Sheldon staring at each other.

His eyes wandered down to her waist where her hand was resting. He swallowed and quickly looked back at his computer. Penny furrowed her eyebrows and wondered what had just happened, but at the moment she was too nervous to go anywhere near him.

Not long after that, guests started to arrive. Then, Raj and Leonard came after. Raj had a huge smile on his face as no one had thrown him a party before. He was glad that he had been seeing a therapist to work on his selective mutism for the past 6 months. He could talk to women, but only up to a certain point. If they started to flirt with him, he'd stop talking. It was still progress though.

"Dude, this is so cool. No one's ever thrown me a party before."

"What? Really? That's so sad." Penny replied and handed him a beer.

"Thank you, Penny. They told me you planned it all."

"You're welcome, sweetie." she said as she smiled at him.

He took a swig of his beer and walked away from the kitchen to go talk to some of Penny's friends. The beer would loosen him up as well and she hoped that he didn't say anything inappropriate to her friends or she'd never hear the end of it.

"It seems this party is going much better than the party you planned for Leonard." The voice came from behind her and right next to her ear. She turned her head slightly and Sheldon was leaning in right next to her, but then he stood upright again.

She turned around and tripped on her own feet. She ended up with her head against Sheldon's chest and his hands once again holding her up. She was becoming very clumsy around this man. Before he pushed her back into standing position, she heard his heartbeat for a moment and could have sworn she heard it accelerate.

"Penny, how much have you had to drink?" Sheldon inquired sternly before releasing her shoulders.

"I haven't had anything to drink yet." she responded and looked down at her stupid, clumsy feet.

"Well, maybe you shouldn't. You seem unusually off balance today. Perhaps you should go see a doctor."

"I just tripped on my own feet is all. I'm fine." she said as he looked over and saw someone not using a coaster.

"Excuse me. I have to do some damage control before this place becomes a catastrophic mess."

She was relieved that he left her because she felt weak in the knees and had to place her hands on the island counter to steady herself. The party was a complete success and everyone began to filter out around midnight. Raj had fallen asleep on the couch and so Leonard and Howard had placed a pillow in Sheldon's spot and re-positioned him to sleeping facing the doorway (as Sheldon had insisted on it). Bernadette and Penny were cleaning the kitchen as the guys were picking up any remains of cups and paper plates around the apartment. Sheldon was tired, but he was not going to bed until the apartment was clean.

Once everything was to Sheldon's satisfaction, Howard and Bernadette left. Leonard had actually gone to bed right after they left, mumbling something about Sheldon being anal. In which Sheldon responded with, "I heard that." Penny was the last to leave since she lived right across the hall.

"Okay, well I'm going now." she said as she made her way towards the door.

"Penny?" Sheldon said to her as he patted her shoulder for a moment before pulling his hand away.

She stopped, but didn't turn around seemingly afraid she'd trip again. Why did he just touch her shoulder?

"Yes, Sheldon?"

"Are you sure you're okay? I was stating earlier that you may need to go see a doctor because you've been falling more than usual."

Her face became flushed and she was thankful that she hadn't turned around to look at him. She was surprised he was concerned about her health.

"I'm fine. I was just being a little clumsy. I'll see you later." she said as she opened the door to leave.

"Alright, if you're sure you're okay. I'll see you at 8:15 in the laundry room." he reminded her before shutting the door.


	3. Chapter 3

Penny slept late as it was a Saturday morning, but when she woke up she decided to gather all her laundry and have it ready for later. She was picking up a tank top and then looked down at her hand. _Oh my God. What am I doing? It's only 11am and I'm gathering my laundry. _She put the basket down and sat on her bed. Every time she saw Sheldon she felt more and more out of control of her own body and mind. She was actually nervous to go do laundry at 8:15. _What was Sheldon Cooper doing to her?_

Sheldon was sitting at his computer playing an RPG game, as he had long ago had his fibrous cereal and watched "Doctor Who" on BBC America with Raj who was still a bit hungover, but Leonard took him home after he watched "Doctor Who" with Sheldon. Sheldon's character was looking at the quest board when he saw a character that looked like Penny's character from Age of Conan. He then decided to log out because he got distracted thinking about Penny. The day before she had acted unusual in his presence.

She had nearly fallen on her face while hanging streamers and he was actually hesitant to help her, but he didn't want her to fall into their glass coffee table. That would have been much worse of a situation. When she had looked down at him, she had blushed a bright red and he didn't quite understand why. Embarrassment from almost falling down he assumed. He had never touched any woman's waist except for the time he went to a square dance with his twin sister, Missy and the one time he had to help Penny when she fell in the shower. He felt strange when his hands had touched her. He didn't even think about pulling his hands away for fear of the germs that were surely all over her skin. Her skin was so soft and warm and he had wanted to keep his hands there, but once she had her balance he immediately let go of her.

Then, when she was in the kitchen he had leaned down next to her ear because the music was rather loud and he didn't want to shout. She turned around apparently a bit startled by him and fell into him. Her head had fallen into his chest and she was way too close for comfort with so many people around. His heart rate had quickened at her touch and he had quickly gotten her off of him. He really wasn't sure what was wrong with him. Every time he was near her, he wanted to touch her. After the party, he actually had the urge to touch her skin which is why he had patted her on the shoulder (she had been wearing a green halter top that matched her eyes) and inquired about her health again.

"Sheldon? Hello? Sheldon?!" Leonard was standing in the doorway of the apartment having just come back from dropping Raj off.

Sheldon looked over at Leonard, "Oh, hello, Leonard."

"Are you okay? You seemed to be off in your own world." Leonard questioned him as he dropped his keys in the bowl.

"Yes, I'm fine," he said as he stood up, "Leonard?"

"Yes, Sheldon?"

"You love Priya, correct?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Why do you love her?"

Leonard stared at Sheldon for a moment bewildered by his question. He knew if he didn't answer that Sheldon would bother him all day about it.

"She's beautiful, smart, and sexy. She likes that I'm intelligent. She makes me laugh and smile when she does this cute little thing with her nose," he imitated her to show Sheldon, "Again, why do you want to know?"

Sheldon looked at him and rolled his eyes. Leonard's relationship sounded so repulsive to him.

"I was curious about the human condition of love. I want to form some hypotheses, but I needed to ask people who are seemingly in love."

"Right. Okay, well good luck with that." Leonard raised an eyebrow at him and went to his room. Leonard always thought Sheldon researched the strangest things when he wasn't working on String Theory.

**8:15 pm**

Sheldon was in the laundry room sorting his laundry. Whites in this washer and colored clothing in the other washer. He noticed that Penny was late as usual. He also came to realize that no one in the building ever did their laundry at the same time that he did, except for Penny. It had become a routine for them when she had first moved in. A few minutes later, Penny came in with her laundry and started to load a washer on the opposite end of the laundry room.

"Penny?" he said as he measured out a perfect amount of laundry detergent for each washer.

"Yes, Sheldon?" she said as she just dumped some detergent in and inserted her quarters to start the machine.

"Have you ever been in love?"

"What? Why do you ask?" she had placed her hands on top of the washer, as if to hold herself up and didn't turn around to look at him.

At this point, he had started his washers and had walked over to where she stood. He had that urge to touch her again, so he boldly wrapped his long fingers around her wrist and coerced her to turn around and look at him.

"What are you doing?" Penny asked, but didn't move away from him or pull away from his grip on her wrist.

"An experiment," he said as he let her wrist go and placed his hand on her waist pulling her toward him and closing the gap that was between them. She didn't fight him and seemed completely stunned. He looked down at her, rested his forehead against hers and closed his eyes. He took in a deep breath and let it out. "Fascinating," was all he said before releasing her as if nothing had happened.

"Sheldon, what the fu...?" Penny's phone rang before she could finish her question. She looked at it and answered because it was her father. She sat on top of her washer and kept looking over at Sheldon while she spoke to her father. Sheldon was reading a physics journal while he waited for his laundry to be done and completely ignored her (at least that's what he wanted her to think). Her father seemed to babble on forever and once she got off the phone, she realized that Sheldon had finished his folding and left her there.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hi all. Sorry it's taken me so long for this chapter. I've been going through some things and haven't been inspired. I hope this chapter isn't too bad. I will try not to stay away for so long this time. **

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Penny wanted to march right over to 4A and beat the physics out of Sheldon. What the hell was his problem?

Instead she hid in her apartment. She usually wasn't so unnerved by people, but Sheldon, she couldn't figure him out some times and she just wanted to scream.

She put her laundry away to keep herself occupied for a few moments. Then, she went and sat down to channel surf before going to bed, but couldn't stay focused on anything she stopped on. Her mind kept going back to the laundry room, the feel of his hands on her and his forehead against her forehead. It felt like it almost hadn't happened. Penny pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and called Bernadette.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Penny. What's going on? You don't usually call this late."

"I know. I didn't wake you, did I?"

"No, I just brushed my teeth. What's wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong. Well, I don't know. Something strange happened today in the laundry room."

"In the laundry room? You do laundry with Shel...Oh my God! Something happened with Sheldon!"

Penny closed her eyes and nodded her head even though Bernadette couldn't see her. "Yes, something really weird happened and I'm not sure what to think. First, Sheldon asked me if I had ever been in love. Which kind of startled me since I'm in love with him. I couldn't even look at him. All of a sudden, he was right there and he grabbed me by the waist and pressed his forehead against mine. He didn't say anything, but "fascinating" and then it was over. What the hell does that mean?"

"What?! Didn't you ask him?"

"No, because my dad called and when I was off the phone, he was gone."

"Hmm. Well, Sheldon is a scientist. Perhaps he was testing a hypothesis. Sheldon doesn't know how to deal with feelings, you know that."

"So you think he has feelings for me?" Penny sat up straight now.

"I don't know. You're going to have to do some of your own research. You need to pay attention to how he acts around you and maybe even do little things to see what kind of a reaction you'll get from him."

"You're right. I can't just jump to conclusions. After all, Sheldon is...Sheldon. You never know what is going on in his head."

"Exactly, so if you need any help, just let me know. I'm curious what's going on in that big head of his. Well, I'm going to bed. Talk to you later."

"Okay, thanks for the advice. Bye."

After Penny got off of the phone she felt a little better and decided she would start her experiment in the morning.

**The next morning...**

Penny went over to 4A to get some milk for her coffee. Of course, she didn't knock and just let herself in.

"Hello, Penny," Sheldon said as he was making Cylon toast, "Would you like some Cylon toast?"

"No, thanks. Just milk today." She sat her coffee cup on the island counter and could barely look at him as she turned to retrieve the milk from the refrigerator.

"Are you alright?" Sheldon queried as he had noticed she didn't look at him.

"I'm fine. Why would you ask such a thing?" Penny said as she poured some milk into her cup and took a large sip from her coffee mug, hiding her embarrassment.

Sheldon stopped making toast and looked at Penny as if he hadn't done a thing the night before and stated, "You look a bit flustered."

Penny sat her coffee cup down and was about to tell the theoretical physicist where he could shove his "a bit flustered" comment when Leonard walked in.

"Morning, Penny." Leonard said as he shuffled by her to get a glass of juice.

"Good morning, Leonard." Sheldon replied as he was looking at Penny, "Cylon toast?"

Penny could have sworn she saw amusement in his eyes because she knew he heard Leonard coming down the hall before she did.

"Sure," Leonard replied as he took a piece and bit into it, "Cylon toast, Penny?"

"No, I've lost my appetite." Penny retorted as she turned to leave the apartment.

"Penny, we should continue this conversation later." Sheldon declared nonchalantly.

She was gripping the handle of her coffee cup so hard that her knuckles started to turn white. "Oh, we will, Sheldon. Don't you worry about that."

As she was shutting the apartment door, she heard Leonard ask, "What was that about?" She didn't wait to hear Sheldon's answer because she didn't want to. Once she was inside her apartment, she placed her coffee cup on her coffee table and threw herself onto her sofa. She put her face into one of the pillows and screamed. When she was calm, she sat up again.

"You want to play flirting games, Sheldon Cooper? You don't know who you're dealing with. Bring it on, Dr. Whackadoodle."


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi all. I'm doing a lot better and I should be able to continue this fic now. This chapter will be from Sheldon's POV.  
**

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Penny stayed away from 4A for a few days and Sheldon was getting curious. Had he made her that angry at him? He knew she didn't work today and decided to visit her to find out the logical reason she hadn't been over and wasn't at The Cheesecake Factory on Tuesday for his burger order. _Another server had taken his order and they got it all wrong, even though he ordered the same burger every Tuesday. _

Sheldon walked over and did his usual knocking ritual and waited. He heard shuffling in the apartment, but she didn't answer him. He was about to knock again when the door opened. Sheldon's eyes widened and his jaw dropped open when he saw her. She was wearing a green thigh-high silk-like robe and it had slipped off her shoulder on one side, revealing her black lacy bra. Her hair was in a messy bun and she gave him a cute, flirty smile before bringing the robe back to her shoulder.

"Sheldon?" she said as she cocked her head to the side a bit.

"I...why weren't...um." he fell silent and he'd never been at a loss for words before. _What in the world was wrong with him?_

That's when he saw it. A twinkle in her big green eyes. He knew she was playing his game now. _It was an experiment at first, but now that she wanted to play, he'd play. He loved to play games._ He raised his right eyebrow and pursed his lips.

"I'm on to you, Penelope Jane Augustine." he saw her cringe at the use of her full name, of which he was the only one who was privy to it, from the time she slipped in the tub and dislocated her shoulder.

"I have no idea what you are referring to, Dr. Sheldon Lee Cooper." she tossed him an evil grin and slowly shut the door in his face as he once again went speechless.

_That little vixen. _Sheldon walked back to his apartment and went to contemplate his next move. War required strategy and he was going to need all his pieces to defeat that woman.

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**This chapter is a little shorter than the others. I felt like this was a good place to end it for the next chapter. Happy New Year!**


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